Where Stamp Collecting Fits In The Scientific World

According to Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics.

I am both a scientist and philatelist. Was Ernest Rutherford a philatelist? I ask because I am not sure if his tone is esteeming or disparaging philately by associating it with all matters besides physics.

Physics really is everything, but if he is disparaging philately to the utmost he might have been ignorant of its merits.

Disparaging may be too strong a word to convey what Bohr intended. I do believe he was demeaning (or at least belittling) all non-physics science by effectively equating it to philately. But remember, his target was actually all of science outside physics, not stamp collecting. I think it was more a case of putting physics on a pedestal above all else.

Niels Bohr and Ernest Rutherford did work together and were great friends.

Mr Rutherford is easily understood by considering Mr Darwin; all of biology (a major part of which was anatomy) involved collecting & describing & classifying samples. Chemistry was not much different. By comparison, physicists had very little hard data from very crude instrumentation, and had to think tings through. He was clearly insulting the other branches of science by comparing them to our hobby which, after all, consisted of collecting & describing & classifying samples.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

https://goscf.com/t/38189#325704

The self perceived hierarchy of Science is still with us today.

I live near a major University, and the Chemistry professor, who lived across the alley, would refer to the Biologists as "Frog-Counters".

There are fewer places more snobbish than academia.

Don

Don, you are quite correct. I was in universities for almost 50 years. I'm now emeritus, and while I miss some of it, I don't miss the big egos.

Don

Hobbies are not science. I could paint, sometime I write and I am also a stamp collector. I buy often sometime I sell and believe me I relax. Happy holidays to everyone. Daniel

I am a scientist and stamp collector as well. The above quote is true. Rutherford was clearly being disparaging to stamp collectors. 19th Century science (other than physics and maybe chemistry) was all about observing and collecting the natural world. Physics, on the other hand, was more about theory and experimentation. Thus if you weren't doing physics, you were just 'stamp collecting'

Jim,

So true! Even within a field...we molecular biologists would often call ecologists "grassologists"

Similar to how some 'philatelists' regard 'stamp collectors' and how some specialists regard generalists

The thing to do about his quote is to show a stamp that has him on it. In that way stamps have won the day, since to be on a stamp is an honour of sorts. See: https://goscf.com/t/48499



To make a philatelic point, we should all try finding and posting here at least one stamp with Lord Rutherford on it since stamps have the last word.

Good one!

Chris wrote: "......similar to how some 'philatelists' regard 'stamp collectors' and how some specialists regard generalists......." I can't mouth off as I just criticize myself. I fit into all four categories, depending on the part of my collection is being discussed.